Fluffy grain-free muffins

Grain-free, ‘paleo’ baked goods made with almond flour or coconut flour (or a mix of the two) are often very heavy and dense. I have nothing against coconut and almond flours, but regardless of the quantities you use, these flours always add a bit of ‘heaviness’ to your cakes and cookies. This is great for ‘compact’ cakes like brownies, but that doesn’t work very well in cake recipes that are supposed to be light and fluffy. (And as a matter of fact, even paleo advocates aren’t big fan of almond flour).

Another solution to make grain-free baked goods: chickpea flour (but this flour isn’t a ‘paleo’ flour since it’s made out of legumes). The main disadvantage of chickpea flour: its strong tastes doesn’t marry well with other ingredients in sweet recipes. You usually have to mask the taste with strongly flavored foods like cocoa or carob. (For example, Leanne’s Chocolate Muffins or my Carob Brownies).

My favorite flour to make grain-free baked good is thus by far chestnut flour. Yes, it’s higher in carbs, but it’s really the perfect flour for sweet recipes (like in these Tuscan crepes, Tuscan cake, these cookies, and this steamed pie). I’m just a huge fan of everything with chestnuts). It’s a pity chestnut flour isn’t easily available for many of my blog readers outside Europe. There are many chestnut flours on Amazon.com, but I can well imagine that a 9-dollar pack of flour isn’t a priority on your grocery list…

Should you however ever get your hands on a pack, here’s a simple recipe for grain-free, paleo muffins that are actually fluffy instead of heavy and stodgy.

Hi Suzanne, you could substitute the egg using a vegan egg substitute, but I’m afraid the muffins won’t rise as beautifully as they do with eggs. I think you’d be better off trying another recipe like my vegan recipes.

These are really good not too sweet. I made them in an American sized muffin pan and got 6. I greased the pan well but the bottoms still stuck (coconut oil) Next time I’ll use cupcake wrappers. So happy for a paleo bread/muffin that’s not heavy like ones made with almond flour. Thanks!

This is the recipe that I was looking for! Love cooking with chestnut flour. I doubled the recipe and used xylitol instead of honey. I made a beautiful loaf that slices great and tastes even better toasted.
Thank you so much!

Hi Pippi. Yes, I doubled everything. These days I don’t ad any honey or xylitol anymore because the flour is sweet enough. I also ad some salt to the loaf and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. I bake it for about 35-40 min with a some foil on top of the tin because that way it will rise strait up as a perfect loaf. I love it !